This is the shortest tube line in London; it has only two stations and runs from Bank north of the river, down to Waterloo south of the river. A journey on it takes around 4 minutes to travel the 1.5 miles between the two stations, but if you are thinking of a trip it only runs weekdays and Saturdays and even then the opening hours are a little restricted, so its probably best to check before traveling.

The line has been nicknamed the ‘drain’, and there are a number of possible reasons for this. The first might be due to the initials W&C, the second might be due to the smell of stale water that is said to permeate through the tunnels, and the other might be that because the line is totally underground for its short length it is like working ‘down the drain’. No-one seems to be sure of the exact origin of the nickname.

I made the trip on a Saturday morning, starting at Bank and unlike the same journey a few days earlier on a Wednesday morning it was quite empty. There were a few people waiting, and some seemed quite confused as to which platform the next train would actually arrive at. To add to the confusion there are two platforms at Bank and trains seem to arrive and depart at alternate platforms, although probably due to the short nature of the line there isn’t a long wait between trains.

Up until a few years ago, the trains were painted in British Rail Network South East livery, and for the trainspotters the units were designated Class 482. The trains are almost identical to the 1992 stock used on the Central Line. When this stock was introduced the line itself was converted to 4 rail operation as on the rest of London Underground with the two running rails, a positive rail and a new negative rail made from aluminum. The other unique features of this line is that because of the underground nature of the line, when cars are removed for maintenance they must be hoisted up by crane from the Waterloo end, and if when you alight at Waterloo, you walk to the driving end of the train the sidings at the depot can be seen down the tunnel, and also all the speeds are measured in kilometers per hour on the speed signs and gauges in the cabs, not miles per hour as on the rest of the system.

Arriving at Waterloo it is a short walk up into the main concourse of the station, and the journey on the Waterloo & City is painless compared to the longer journey if you are coming from the east, of traveling to Embankment on the District Line, and changing to the Northern Line and traveling one stop to Waterloo.

One word of warning, photography isn’t allowed on the London Underground, although this does seem to vary greatly between stations, and while taking some photographs for this article I was shouted at from the other end of the platform in Waterloo, ‘No Photos, No Photos’, while I stood to try and get a photograph of the sidings.

Travelers in London if they don’t have an Oystercard, can expect to pay £4 for a single journey on the W&C, although if you don’t have an Oystercard I would recommend getting a 1 day travelcard, which will provide you with unlimited travel on tubes and buses in London, as it will work out just slightly more than the cost of a single journey.